The Post editorial adds, “Proponents of reform will have to take into account the possibility of a veto by President Bush — or the Senate filibuster they themselves declined to employ. But the restoration of the ancient right of habeas corpus is essential to bringing the United States back into conformance with international norms of human rights. It ought to be something a strong majority in Congress can agree on.” The editorial concludes:

It’s hard to understand why Democrats would insist on examining Vice President Cheney’s first-term energy task force but would not seek to determine — at last — how senior military commanders and defense officials may have contributed to the prisoner abuse scandal at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. No one but low-ranking soldiers has been criminally prosecuted for the shocking abuse at Abu Ghraib, despite evidence that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and several top generals played a role in sanctioning practices such as sexually humiliating prisoners and threatening them with dogs. Democrats now will have the opportunity — and the duty — to insist on accountability.

Walter Pincus, national security reporter for The Washington Post, has another idea. Pincus writes in an essay published in the Post’s “Outlook” section:

Congress could also adopt an idea put forward by Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), who is in line to become chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Taking President Bush at his word that “when the Iraqis stand up, the U.S. will stand down,” Skelton has proposed that for every three Iraqi brigades that U.S. trainers certify as ready to lead the fight against insurgents, one U.S. brigade could be brought home. How about adding an amendment to that effect to the 2008 defense authorization bill?

I think the Democrats know they were elected to bring representation back to government. We don’t want to elect a king, a guy we may or may not have voted for on only one day but are stuck with for four years, while he follows his own muse – we want him or her to stay our representative, not become our dictator. We want out of Iraq, we want our freedoms returned to us, we want rich people to pay their fair share, (and since they profit more from the right to do business here, it’s only fair that they ‘pay to play.’ If our business leaders want bigger profits, they should make bigger profits, not pay less tax.) We want wrongdoing to be exposed and punished, and that starts with President Bush, we want his actions investigated and if he’s been a law-breaker, we want him brought to justice. We don’ want any more ‘secret’ government, we want it to be transparent, and if our leaders have been foolish, we don’t want to protect them from embarrassment, we want to expose them. This seems pretty obvious, no?

I agree with the Post’s “wish list” on what the Dem’s should have at the top of their agenda. Not investigating Cheney but investigating the military and the role the brass played in the scandals of the war.

Their directions or oversight of interrogations or lack thereof, was the biggest scandal of the war. For none of these officers to take responsibility for these actions has been outrageous.

The to-list must start with listening to the voters after election day, for those that want a long congressional or senatorial career that is. The people have been ahead of the politicians, we demand reform, untampered elections as well as de-powered lobbiests, we demand accountability and we demand that our representatives restore limits on the presidency, by conducting investigations and by holding law-breakers and incompetents accountable. Stop thinking about preserving yourself, and start thinking about preserving our democracy.

I remember how destructive impeachment and investigation was between 1996-2000. Motivated entirely by politics and self-righteousness, Americans were deprived of leadership that might have addressed problems and established new policty.
Disgusted as I am by this administration and its ardent supporters, I would not waste time on retribution or needless and distracting investigation. In Congress, the morals I care about are a strict separation of legislators from corporate interests; an opportunity for “ordinary Americans” (a term I’ve interpreted as those of us who don’t provide significant support for legislators based on satisfying legislative favoritism) to have significant input to legislative debate on formal basis; re-establishing American ideals as the basis for our goals.
In short, I want our Congress to work for American and not for themselves.